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1;034 AD==4A Andy Graham poses heroically with his ‘Screaming Vortex’.

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6W^bc X] cWT <PRWX]T Andy Graham brings the past to life at the Handcar Regatta with his ‘Screaming Vortex’ By Tori Masucci

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his hilly Sebastopol neighborhood is just like any other. As a peaceful quiet settles into the afternoon air, a passerby would never suspect that anything out of the ordinary goes on in any of these suburban homes. So naturally the large, metal contraption named The Screaming Vortex—a Willy Wonkaesque machine with counter-rotating fan blades—that fills up Andy Graham’s driveway has attracted many curious spectators. Graham’s fiancĂŠ, Alexis Bauer, is sweeping the driveway as I pull up. “Andy’s just inside. He’ll be out in a minute,â€? she says. “I’m trying to clean up a little around here.â€? Graham emerges from the house in blue jeans and a camouf lage T-shirt. Surrounding this thin, soft-spoken man, a creative energy f lows. Graham is an entrepreneur, a go-getter, a schemer. He makes his living as a musician and toolmaker at Sebastopol’s General Hydroponics. Fusing these talents together, his life work is spent as inventor with an eye for the mechanical past, representing an era of invention that America has nearly forgotten.

Graham’s creation, The Screaming Vortex, which sits stoically spinning in the wind in front of us, is near completion for the upcoming Handcar Regatta, taking place in downtown Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square on Sept. 27. The historically infused event, now in its second year, is a compilation of handcar races down the area railroad tracks, live performances and local artistic crafts and curiosities, all wrapped together with a turn-ofthe-century World’s Fair steampunk aesthetic unlike any arts exposition in the North Bay. Last year, Graham took first place at the Regatta for speed with his four-wheeled rail bike. Not two days afterward, he was busy at work on the Vortex, drawing out plans on the computer, gathering the basic dimensions and then letting the design work f low organically. “This is one of my first projects that ever combined electric fans and trains,� Graham says. “It’s really kind of a culmination of all of my favorite things.� A self-proclaimed “electric-fan nut,� Graham says that besides the anticipation of the Regatta, building the Vortex was mostly an excuse to construct giant fan blades, an odd fascination that began at a young age.

“I have a picture of me in front of the Queen Mary’s propeller as a kid. Apparently, I had a fit and made my parents pull over to take a picture of me next to it. I’ve always been attracted to propellers and fans for reasons I don’t really know,� he says with a laugh. “I took everything apart when I was a kid, including my brother’s watch and my aunt’s washing machine. I was so young that they thought I couldn’t even use tools.� His fixation with taking things apart soon developed into a passion for learning to put them back together again. After high school, Graham worked for a high-end bicycle company and learned many different trades in metalworking. Once he became skilled at welding, the ideas began to surge. Using his hands to build things from the ground up sky-rocketed him into the future—as well as the past. Graham used his winnings from last year’s Regatta to purchase scrap metal for The Screaming Vortex, whose name will become evident once whistles are attached to the ends of the six-winged fan blades, creating a haunting screech as it traverses down the tracks. Although the wooden bench seat is the last '+ component Graham has left to install, THE BOHEMIAN

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